This week I’ll not be able to write a new worship and prayer help as I was selected for jury duty. So for our written devotional this Tuesday I am sending along a wonderful exposition from one of our founding fathers in the ARP, Rev. Ebenezer Erskine.
Today's reading is from a sermon he preached on Psalm 89:14:
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne."—Psalm 89:14
“This psalm elegantly describes God's covenant of grace made with Christ, and his spiritual seed in him, under the picture of God's covenant of royalty with David and his posterity; as is plain from many passages of the psalm, which are too sublime and lofty to be restrained to David's temporary reign, or to that of his posterity over the tribes of Israel, which quite expired in the revolution of a few centuries.
The words read are a description of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom and administration: Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.
Where we may notice, 1. The royal person who is the subject—matter of my text, and of the greatest part of the psalm: he is pointed at in the pronoun thy. This is not other than Christ, the true David, who was to reign the latter days; and in whom David's family and kingdom shall be perpetuated for ever. This is the king who rules in righteousness, and whose seed is to be established for ever, whose throne shall be built up to all generations, ver. 4.
2. We have a badge of royal majesty and sovereignty ascribed to him; a throne. We frequently read in scripture of Christ's throne, Psal. 45:6, compared with Heb. 1:8: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever."
God's throne is threefold.
(1.) His throne of glory; by which I understand the essential glory and majesty of the divine nature. This throne is inaccessible by finite creatures; hence 1 Tim. 6:16, he is said to "dwell in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see." The light of glory that breaks forth from this throne of essential glory, is too bright and overwhelming either for men or angels immediately to behold. Hence the Seraphims, Isa. 6, are represented as covering their faces with their wings, to veil their eyes from that dazzling glory of divine holiness shining forth from his glorious throne, which is high and lifted up. --O who of Adam's fallen posterity "shall stand in his holy place!"
(2.) There is his throne of justice, where he judges sinners according to the tenor of the law or broken covenant of works. At this par, every unbeliever is condemned already; from this throne, their final and irreversible doom will pass at the last day; "Depart form me, ye cursed," &c. Before this throne, no living flesh can be justified: "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Psal. 120:3.
(3.) We read of the throne of grace, Heb. 4:16: "Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." And this is the throne intended in my text, as is plain from the close of the verse, and what follows, "Mercy and truth go before the face" of him that sits on it; a "joyful sound" of peace, pardon, and salvation, issues forth from it to perishing sinners. They walk in the light of the King's countenance, rejoice in his name, and are exalted in"his righteousness, etc... Terror and amazement, death and ruin, are the fruits of God's appearing to sinners from a throne of glory, or justice; and therefore, I say, it must be a throne of grace that is here intended.
3. In the words we have the firm foundation upon which this throne of grace stands; its habitation, or (as in the margin) establishment, is justice and judgment: the firmest foundation upon which any throne can be settled. The thrones of many earthly potentates are reared and built up with violence and oppression; but the throne of God's kingdom of grace is established in righteousness. The Son of God, as the Surety of sinners, submitter to satisfy justice, and to undergo the judgment and the condemnation of the broken law, by which he brings in everlasting righteousness; and upon this bottom or foundation the throne of grace is established, and upon this basis (as Pool reads it) will it stand for ever….
…God from a throne of grace is to be viewed as a pardoning God, issuing forth indemnities to guilty rebels, who have violated his laws, and trampled upon his authority. From a throne of justice he can only be viewed as a condemning God, pronouncing and executing the righteous sentence of a broken law upon sinners who have transgressed it; and when the holiest of saints that ever breathed come to deal with God upon this footing, they are made to cry out, "O Lord, who shall stand?" Nothing but "tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath, to every soul of man that doeth evil."
But O glory to God in the highest, that by the reign of grace, through the righteousness of Christ, he appears in quite another view, namely, as a "God forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin;" yea, glorying in it as his prerogative, Isa. 43:25; offering and bestowing his pardons upon the guiltiest of criminals, Isa. 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
8. From a throne of grace God appears to us as a God of infinite bounty and liberality. And O what a pleasant view is this to the poor and needy! Jam. 1:5: "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." From a throne of grace he "gives," and gives "liberally," and gives "without upbraiding." O sirs, grace is not for holding in, but for giving out; grace could not be grace if it were otherwise. Never was there a throne like this throne of grace, which has its very nature and standing by liberality. How soon would it spend the substance of the greatest and richest kings upon earth, to give to every one that had a mind to ask! If they kept open doors and open treasures for all, and made every one welcome to come and take whatever they pleased, how soon would their treasuries be emptied. But, the treasuries of this throne are not only inexhaustible, but they are not in the least impaired by giving out: however much grace has been given out from this throne to the sons of men, (and the distributions already have been very large,) yet there is as much grace behind as ever. Yea, the very glory, riches, and splendour of this throne, lie in the large, free, and liberal distributions that are made to poor and needy sinners, who come to it for grace and mercy; and the King makes all welcome without exception: Isa. 55:1: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," &c.
9. He is to be viewed from a throne of grace as a prayer-hearing God: Psal. 65:2: "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." He sits upon this throne encouraging all who have any business with him to come forward with boldness, and present their petitions to him, assuring them that their bills of request shall not be cast over bar: Matth. 7:7: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." The prayer of faith is the stated means of God's appointment for drawing forth promised mercy and grace: Ezek. 36:37: "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." So open-hearted is the King, that his heart opens his ear to hear, and his hand to give. When we have asked great things of him, he chides us, because we have not asked more and greater things: and bids us ask, and we shall "receive, that our joy may be full." The voice of prayer makes a sweet and melodious sound at this throne: Cant. 2:14: "Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice: for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely."
10. Lastly, View him upon a throne of grace and you shall see him as your own God. Wherever we find God in all the word appearing from a throne of grace to sinners, we shall still find him asserting himself to be their God in Christ. Upon this throne he appears to Abraham: and what says he to him? Gen. 17:7: "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." When this covenant was renewed, or of new published at Mount Sinai, he says, "I am the Lord thy God." This is the ordinary style of the covenant of grace which issues from a throne of grace; "I will be their God, and they shall he my people." Now, what can be God's design in appearing to us sinners after such a manner, but that we, who had forfeited all claim to him by the breach of the first covenant may claim him as our God, even our own God, upon the footing of free grace. There is so much sweetness, grace, mercy, love, and salvation in God manifesting himself from a throne of grace, that the soul, whenever it views him by faith, is laid under an invincible (though sweet) necessity, to claim him as its own God in Christ, saying with Thomas, "My Lord, and my God." He that is my God, is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. And faith having once fixed the soul's claim to God in Christ upon the covenant ground and grant, it will maintain its claim to him upon the same ground, even when clouds and darkness are round about him; as the church does, Isa. 49:14: "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." Thus you see what amiable views of the divine Majesty are to be had from a throne of grace, or from God manifesting himself in the flesh, dealing with sinners according to gospel-grace.”
— From the sermon “Throne of Grace”. You can read the rest here:
https://www.monergism.com/throne-grace
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church